The purpose of this study is to generate a substantive theory that accounts for adolescent prostitutes' life process, change, and pattern by examining the experiential process after they engaged in prostitution
This study used the grounded theory sugg...
The purpose of this study is to generate a substantive theory that accounts for adolescent prostitutes' life process, change, and pattern by examining the experiential process after they engaged in prostitution
This study used the grounded theory suggested by Strauss and Corbin(1990). Data were collected through the in-depth interview and observation. The thirteen female juvenile who had the experience of juvenile prostitution have participated in this study.
As a result of the data analysis, in an open coding, 101 concepts, 31 subcategories, and 12 categories were generated. In an axial coding, the outcomes of a paradigm model were as follows:
The causal condition was named 'inflow of prostitution' and the central phenomenon turned out to be 'loss of self-esteem'. The contextual conditions were named 'negative experience' and 'self-indulgence'. The intervening conditions were presented to be 'introspective attitude', 'anticipation anxiety', and 'social support system'. The action/interaction strategies turned out to be 'self-abandonment', 'hesitation', and 'looking for a hope'. The consequences were presented to be 'danger of re-inflow from prostitution' and 'entry of successful termination of prostitution'.
The core category in a selective coding was 'leading a life as a confident woman getting out of prostitution'. Based on the core category, three types of adolescent prostitute's life attitude were found as follows: 'past returning type', 'present hesitating type', and 'future challenging type'. In 'past returning type', as adolescent prostitutes gave up their future with no hope, they might fall in the danger of re-inflow to prostitution. In 'present hesitating type', after they hesitated in the present life for a long time, they approached the successful termination of prostitution as time goes by. In 'future challenging type', they entered the successful termination of prostitution looking for a hope.
According to the process analysis, the experiential process of adolescent prostitutes turned out to take 5stages: pre-inflow stage of prostitution, confusion stage, loss stage, despair · conflict · reconstitution stage, and resignation · re-challenge stage.
In conclusion, the life process of adolescent prostitutes was 'leading a life as a confident woman getting out of prostitution'. Also, they commonly experienced the loss of self-esteem. This changed by such intervening conditions as introspective attitude, anticipation anxiety, and social support system, that is, as introspective attitude was high, anticipation anxiety was low, and social support system was strong, they had a strong will to terminate prostitution. The difference in how to perceive and handle with the loss influenced the attitude of life, brought about different patterns of the attitude of life. And this finally influenced the termination of prostitution.
The findings of this study are expected to provide the basic information and knowledge for social workers to seek the intervention plan in the field for the rehabilitation and the re-adaptation of adolescent prostitutes.